"But I saw
[the
mysterious small white jet]
and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my
head. They did not want my story - nobody
here did."

"...the FBI and the state police
here have confirmed that have they cordoned off a
second area about six to eight miles away ... This is apparently
another debris site, which raises a
number of questions ... there were some cell
phone callers ... who said saw a bomb,
or something that looked like a bomb..." -
Brian Cabell, CNN Correspondent

l

"A Boeing 767 out of Boston made
an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland
Hopkins Airport due to concerns that it may have a bomb ... the plane
had been moved to a secure area of the airport ...
United identified the plane asFlight 93."

l

l

United Airlines
Flight 93, a Boeing 757.

"Flight
93 was going from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco.
Thirty-three passengers, seven crew members and the four hijackers
died." -ABC (8/08/03)

Rescue workers
search for debris left from United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed
at approximately 10:06 am on Sept. 11, 2001 in Shanksville, PA.

l

Two alleged Flight 93 hijackers
reported alive!

* Saeed Alghamdi,
a name used by one of the alleged hijackers on United Airlines Flight
93...

* Ahmed Alnami, a
name used by another suspected hijacker on Flight 93. -(See
Alleged hijackers)

Did Flight 93 land safely on 9/11 at Cleveland
Hopkins International Airport?

l

Plane Lands In
Cleveland; Bomb Feared Aboard
Reported by: 9News Staff
Web produced by: Liz Foreman
9/11/01 11:43:57 AM
"A Boeing 767 out of Boston
made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins
International Airport due to concerns that it may have a bomb
aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White.
White said the plane had been moved to a secure area of the airport,
and was evacuated. United identified the plane asFlight 93. The
airline [didn't] say how many people were aboard the flight. United said it was also "deeply concerned" about another
flight, Flight 175, a Boeing 767, which was bound from Boston to
Los Angeles.
On behalf of the airline CEO James Goodwin said: "The thoughts of
everyone at United are with the passengers and crew of these flights.
Our prayers are also with everyone on the ground who may have been
involved.
"United is working with all the relevant authorities, including the FBI,
to obtain further information on these flights," he said." -WCPO-TV
(09/11/01) [Reprinted at:
911Truth.org,
Global Free Press,
Rense.com]

Notice that the flight
path of Flight 93 makes a hard turn very close to Cleveland Hopkins
International Airport.

Plane makes emergency landingby Paul Singer"A Boeing 767 out of
Boston made an emergency landing Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins
International Airport because of concerns that it may have a bomb
aboard, said Mayor Michael R. White.
The plane was sitting on a runway at the airport's west end with
approximately 200 passengers on board. The mayor had said earlier
that the plane was being evacuated, but an airport spokeswoman said the
passengers remained inside.
It was unclear whether any passengers had been taken off the plane.
A SWAT team and bomb unit were at the scene. However, White said, "As of
this moment we do not know that this plane is in stress or duress."
The airplane landed at about 10:45 a.m., but the airport released
no information about the plane's intended destination. Normally, planes
of this size do not land at Hopkins.
"We have no confirmed information that this was a hijacking," the mayor
said. But White said authorities are still concerned that there may be a
bomb aboard the plane.
Cleveland police blocked off all entrances to the airport terminal, and
bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in to the baggage pickup areas.
He said airport officials reported that a second airplane in
distress had passed through Cleveland airspace earlier Tuesday
morning before being handed off to Toledo. Officials at Toledo Express
Airport did not immediately have any information about a plane headed
from Cleveland.
Six other planes were diverted to Akron-Canton Airport, said airport
aviation director Fred Krum. "They were told to get down," Krum said.
The planes were bound for Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Boston when they
were asked to land at Akron.
White said air traffic controllers said they could hear screaming
within the Boeing 767. Additional details were not available.
WTAM radio reported that NASA had closed its Glenn Research Center,
which is located near the airport.
The mayor ordered the evacuation of all major public buildings downtown,
including City Hall, the Justice Center and the convention center. He
has asked owners of large commercial high-rises downtown to evacuate.
Federal buildings downtown also were closed.
Traffic in downtown Cleveland was backed up for blocks as people tried
to get home.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jacobs Field, Gund Arena and Browns
Stadium also were closed, and the mayor said he asked two downtown
college campuses to close.
White said there would be a parking ban on downtown streets." -AP
(09/11/04) [Reprinted at:
911truth.org,
Global Free Press]

l

l

Was this original
news article from WCPO-TV about Flight 93 landing at Hopkins airport
taken off it's website because it was "factually incorrect", or was it
taken off because it was correct? If this story was "factually
incorrect", why didn't they correct the article instead of removing it?

Was it Delta flight
1989 and not Flight 93 that landed at Hopkins airport or did both
planes land there?

l

No explosives found
on Cleveland plane
by Paul Singer
CLEVELAND - No explosives were found aboard
a Delta flight from Boston that was forced to land at
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport because of fears it had been
hijacked, city officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration had been informed at 9:45 a.m.
of a possible hijacking of a plane headed for Cleveland, said FBI
spokesman Mark Bullock.Flight 1989 to Los Angeles was not hijacked but was grounded by
Delta because it was in the same flight pattern as a plane that was
hijacked and struck the World Trade Center in New York, Bullock said.
The plane landed about 10:45 a.m. today with 78 passengers
aboard, airport officials said.
The Boeing 767 was evacuated and searched, said Della Homenik,
spokeswoman for Mayor Michael R. White. Passengers were taken to a
nearby NASA facility.
FBI spokesman Bob Hawk said that since the Delta plane left Boston about
the same time as the hijacked plane, passengers were being interviewed
to see if they saw anything unusual this morning.
After the plane landed, the airport was closed and bomb-sniffing dogs
were brought to baggage pickup areas.
Meanwhile, White said a second airplane in distress had passed
through Cleveland airspace Tuesday morning before being handed off
to Toledo.
Officials at Toledo Express Airport did not immediately have any
information about the plane." -The Post (Ohio Univ.)/AP (09/11/01)

"It was white with no markings but it was definitely military, it
just had that look. It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back
like a spoiler on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the
side. It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets," said
Susan Mcelwain.

NetJets Gulfstream
VSP

"Decker
and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines
mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying
markings."

NetJets Falcon 2000

"The
FBI's later explanation for the white jet was
that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet...Susan Mcelwain
says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she saw."

/

"The unmarked
military-style jet swooped down at high speed through the valley,
twice circled the smoldering black scar where Flight 93 had careered
into the ground just seconds earlier and then hurtled off over the
horizon.
At least six eyewitnesses saw the mysterious aircraft on the
morning of September 11 last year. But the US authorities deny it
ever existed.What was the white jet doing there and why won't they admit to its
presence? Why did other witnesses see smoke and flames trailing from
Flight 93 as it fell from the sky, indicating a possible explosion
aboard?
Or - and this is proving to be the most uncomfortable question of all -
in the moments before the airliner piled into the black, spongy earth at
575mph did an American fighter pilot have to do the unthinkable and
shoot down a US civil airliner?
Susan Mcelwain, 51, who lives two miles from the site, knows what she
saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.
"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my
mini-van," she recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was
traveling real fast, but hardly made any sound.
"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this
great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I
figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialled 911
and told them what happened.
"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got
home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight
93.
I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to
say there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was
heading right to the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been
there at the very moment it came down.
"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was
virtually on top of me. It was white with no markings but it
was definitely military, it just had that look.
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler
on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I
haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one of
those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said there
was no plane around.
"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane
taking pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.
"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above
my head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."
Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further
convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call
she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't
talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I
presumed they meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on
board tried to do something, but I don't believe what happened on the
plane brought it down.
Lee Purbaugh, 32, was the only person to see the last seconds of Flight
93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely 10.06am -
and he also saw the white jet.
"Yes, there was another plane," Lee said. "I didn't get a good
look but it was white and it circled the area about twice and
then it flew off over the horizon."
Tom Spinelli, 28, was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and a half
away. "I saw the white plane," he said.
"It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for
something. I saw it before and after the crash."The FBI's later explanation for the white jet
was that a passing civilian Fairchild Falcon 20 jet was asked to
descend from 34,000ft to 5,000ft some minutes after the crash to give
co-ordinates for the site. The plane and pilot have never been produced
or identified. Susan Mcelwain says a Falcon 20 was not the plane she
saw." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

/

"At least four
witnesses who were at the crash scene within five minutes of the crash
told WTAE's Paul Van Osdol that
they saw another plane in the area.
Somerset County resident Jim Brandt said that he saw another plane in
the area. He said it stayed there for one or two minutes before
leaving.
Another Somerset County resident, Tom Spinello, said that he saw the
plane. He said that it had high back wings. Both men said that the plane had no markings on it, either
civilian or military. The FBI said that it does not think that it was a
military plane, but it would not rule out the possibility of it being a
civilian plane.
-The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

/

"In separate interviews
Thursday, five residents who live and work less than four miles from
the crash site said
they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of the
crash of the Boeing 757 that took off from Newark two hours earlier
Tuesday morning.
Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white jet with
rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her minivan
near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the
tops of trees lining the ridge.
It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook
and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to
me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I
could think of was how close I came to dying. "
"As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized jet flying low and fast,"
Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop or part of a circle, and then
it turned fast and headed out. " Decker and Chaney described the
plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail and
painted white with no identifying markings.
Earlier Thursday, FBI Special Agent William Crowley said
investigators could not rule out that a second plane was nearby during
the crash. He later said he had misspoken. He dismissed
rumors that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it
could strike a target in Washington, D.C. In testimony before the Senate
Armed Services Committee, President Bush's nominee for chairman of
the joint chiefs of staff rejected rumors that the military had shot
down the hijacked plane.
"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," Air Force
Gen. Richard Myers said.
An official at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center in Oberlin,
Ohio, which tracked Flight 93 as it turned in the sky and tracked
eastward from the Cleveland area, said "no comment" when asked if
there was any record of a second plane over the crash site.
"That's something that the FBI is working on and I cannot talk about,"
said Richard Kettel, head of tower operations at the Cleveland center.
He spoke shortly before the FBI announced it had no evidence of a second
jet.Susan Custer said she saw a small white jet streaking overhead.
"Then I heard the boom and saw the mushroom cloud. " Robin Doppstadt was
working inside her family food-and-supply store when she heard the
crash. When she went outside, she said, she saw a small white jet
that looked like it was making a single circle over the crash site.
"Then it climbed very quickly and took off. " "It's the damndest darn
thing," said Dale Browning, a farmer.
"Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us what it
is." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

/

"Two other airplanes
were flying near the hijacked United Airlines jet when it crashed in
Somerset County, but neither had anything to do with the airliner's
fate, the FBI said yesterday.
In fact, one of the planes, a Fairchild Falcon 20 business jet,
was directed to the crash site to help rescuers. The request for the jet
to fly low and obtain the coordinates for the crash explains reports
by
people in the vicinity who said a white or silver jet flew by
moments after the crash.
"There was a hole in the ground -- that was it," said Yates Caldwell,
the pilot who was at the controls of the 10-passenger corporate jet for
Greensboro, N.C.-based apparel maker VF Corp. "There was no way to know
what it was .... I didn't know there had been a crash until I landed,
until I was on the ground in Johnstown." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(9/16/01)

/

Why was this "Falcon 20" plane
directed by authorities to give "coordinates" to the crash site and this
single-engine Piper plane told to immediately turn away and land without
explanation?

/

"A few minutes before
the crash Bill Wright, piloting a single-engine Piper, could see Flight
93 three miles away, but
was suddenly told to turn away and land immediately without
explanation." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

"Additional recordings
would be played from the cockpit of an executive jet that tracked
Flight 93 on Sept. 11...An official for NetJets, a company that sells shares in private
business aircraft, confirmed that
the plane tracking Flight 93 belonged to the company.
The official, who asked not to be identified by name, said the
company was asked not to comment on the Sept. 11 flight but would not
say who made the request." -Holland Sentinel/AP (8/09/02)

In 1995,
world-renowned financier Warren Buffett purchased his first
fractional share in the NetJets® program. Three-and-a-half years later,
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased
NetJets Inc.
"As a NetJets fractional aircraft Owner, I had Three-and-a-half years to
examine the service of NetJets before Berkshire Hathaway purchased
NetJets Inc. We knew we were purchasing the premier provider of aviation
solutions in the world. And you can quote me to the world on that."
- WARREN BUFFETT Chairman and CEO Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

U.S. military pilots
were told to shoot down hijacked commercial airplanes over Washington,
Vice President Dick Cheney said today. Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the vice president said
President Bush "made the decision ... that if the plane would not
divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away
from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them
out."
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that
authorization." Cheney said. "But there were a few moments when
we thought we might."
Questions of U.S. military action have surrounded the crash of a
hijacked airliner in rural Pennsylvania. But although the government
was authorized to shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash
came instead as a result of a passenger uprising.
"We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz
said. "And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that
crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the
passengers on board that brought it down, but the Air Force was in a
position to do so if we had had to." -PBS (9/16/01)

U.S. officials were
considering shooting down the hijacked airliner that crashed in
western Pennsylvania, but it crashed first.
"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert,
if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the
city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out,"
Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday.
No decision had to be made, but administration officials say that,
had the jetliner continued toward Washington, the fighter jets would
have shot it down. The rationale, say the sources, was that the
government was willing to "kill 100 to save a thousand". -CBS (9/16/01)

/

Contradictions

/

"In fact,
military commanders were never notified of the need to intercept
hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned abruptly
from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S. military jets in
the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., director of the Air
National Guard.
Weaver went further Friday, saying planes had scrambled to intercept
three other hijacked jets over New York and Washington - but that no
such notification ever was made to commanders about the flight that
crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently because it initially stayed on
its flight plan toward Ohio and was the last to crash.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the sky
nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble,
Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)

U.S. officials were
considering shooting down the hijacked airliner that crashed in
western Pennsylvania, but it crashed first.
"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert,
if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the
city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out,"
Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday.
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that decision," Cheney
said.
In addition, a Korean Air jetliner en route to Anchorage signaled that
it was being hijacked, though that proved to be a false alarm.
As the fourth hijacked plane was over Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for
Washington, military commanders, the FAA, and White House officials were
on a conference call discussing options. At the time, there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles
within 60 miles of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of
missile range when the jetliner crashed, sources said.
No decision had to be made, but administration officials say that,
had the jetliner continued toward Washington, the fighter jets would
have shot it down. The rationale, say the sources, was that the
government was willing to "kill 100 to save a thousand".
Also on Tuesday, the FAA and military officials were alarmed when a
Korean Air jetliner inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that
it too had been hijacked. Before it got to Alaska, jet
fighters were trailing it, and the plane eventually landed at a
remote base in Canada. -CBS (9/16/01)

In the White House
bunker, a military aide approached the vice president.
"There is a plane 80 miles out," he said. "There
is a fighter in the area. Should we engage?"
"Yes," Cheney replied without hesitation.
Around the vice president, Rice, deputy White House chief of staff
Joshua Bolten and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff,
tensed as the military aide repeated the question, this time with even
more urgency. The plane was now 60 miles out. "Should we
engage?" Cheney was asked.
"Yes," he replied again.
As the plane came closer, the aide repeated the question. Does the
order still stand?
"Of course it does," Cheney snapped.
Within minutes, there was a report that a plane had crashed in
southwestern Pennsylvania-what turned out to be United Flight 93, a
Boeing 757 that had been hijacked after leaving Newark International
Airport. Many of those in the PEOC feared that Cheney's order had
brought down a civilian aircraft. Rice demanded that someone check
with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did we shoot it down or did
it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not
been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred
on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone
conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers
had fought with the hijackers. - Washington Post (1/27/02)

"As the fourth hijacked plane was over
Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for Washington, military commanders, the
FAA, and White House officials were on a conference call discussing
options.
At the time,
there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles within 60 miles
of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of missile range when
the jetliner crashed, sources said."

Also on Tuesday, the
FAA and military officials were alarmed when a Korean Air jetliner
inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that it too had been hijacked.
Before it got to Alaska, jet fighters were trailing it, and the plane
eventually landed at a remote base in Canada.
That plane had not been hijacked, and there's been no explanation as to
why it was sending out the hijacking signal. But in light of what had
already happened in New York and Washington, sources say, that jetliner
was also in serious jeopardy of being shot down. -CBS (9/16/01)

The 180th Fighter Wing's
primary mission is to provide combat ready F16C and support units
capable of deploying world-wide in minimum response time.

Military A-10 "Warthog"

"It was white
with no markings but it was definitely military, it just had that
look. It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler
on the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. It
definitely wasn't one of those executive jets," said
Susan Mcelwain.

*Notice that
some A-10's look white, especially from a distance. All have two
rear engines mounted near the back, a spoiler at the rear with two
upright fins on it's sides, and have very small identification
markings that would make it hard to see if it was flying fast or if
seen from a distance. Also, it wouldn't be too hard for the
military to paint one of these planes all white with no
identification markings.

a

The 111th Fighter Wing mission: To maintain highly trained,
well-equipped, and motivated military forces in order to provide
combat-ready OA-10/A-10 aircraft and support elements in response
to wartime and peacetime tasking under state or federal authority, and
to do so with Loyalty, Honor, and Pride. Willow Grove Air Reserve
Station Pennsylvania.

/

"FURTHER verification
that
some kind of military aircraft was operating in the area is
scientifically irrefutable.At 9.22am a sonic boom - caused by supersonic flight - was picked
up by an earthquake monitoring station in southern Pennsylvania, 60
miles from Shanksville.
UA93 was identified as a hijack at 9.16am. At 9.35am three F-16s were
ordered to "protect the White House at all costs" when it turned towards
the capital. At 10.06am it crashed at Shanksville, less than 10mins
flying time from Washington. -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

"Witnesses reported
seeing military aircraft in the air just after the crash, and
there were rumors that Flight 93 was shot down." -The Pittsburgh Channel
(9/12/01)

Is it just a
coincidence that the C-130 military plane seen flying near the
Pennsylvania crash site was the same C-130 plane that saw Flight 77
flying in the air before it supposedly crashed into the Pentagon?

"A
C-130 military cargo plane was also within 25 miles of the
passenger jet when it crashed, FBI spokesman Bill Crowley said
yesterday, but was not diverted." -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)

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"Lt. Col. Steve
O'Brien started his day at the controls of a Minnesota National
Guard C-130 cargo plane. He and his crew were heading back to the
Twin Cities after moving military supplies around the Caribbean.
About 9:30 a.m., O'Brien throttled the lumbering plane down a
runway at Andrews Air Force Base, just southeast of the District of
Columbia.
"When we took off, we headed north and west and had a beautiful view of
the Mall," he said. "I noticed this airplane up and to the left
of us, at 10 o'clock. He was descending to our altitude, four miles away
or so. That's awful close, so I was surprised he wasn't calling out to
us.
"It was like coming up to an intersection. When air traffic control
asked me if we had him in sight, I told him that was an understatement -
by then, he had pretty much filled our windscreen. Then he made a
pretty aggressive turn so he was moving right in front of us, a mile
and a half, two miles away. I said we had him in sight, then the
controller asked me what kind of plane it was.
"That caught us up, because normally they have all that
information. The controller didn't seem to know anything."
O'Brien reported that the plane was either a 757 or 767 and its
silver fuselage meant it was probably an American Airlines jet. "They
told us to turn and follow that aircraft - in 20-plus years of
flying, I've never been asked to do something like that. With all of the
East Coast haze, I had a hard time picking him out.
"The next thing I saw was the fireball. It was huge. I told
Washington the airplane has impacted the ground. Shook everyone up
pretty good. I told them the approximate location was close to the
Potomac. I figured he'd had some in-flight emergency and was trying to
get back on the ground to Washington National. Suddenly, I could see the
outline of the Pentagon. It was horrible. I told Washington this
thing has impacted the west side of the Pentagon."
O'Brien asked the controller whether he should set up a low orbit around
the building but was told to get out of the area as quickly as possible.
"I took the plane once through the plume of smoke and thought if
this was a terrorist attack, it probably wasn't a good idea to be flying
through that plume."
He flew west, not exactly sure where he was supposed to land.
Somewhere over western Pennsylvania,
O'Brien looked down at a blackened, smoldering field. "I hoped
it was just a tire fire or something, but when I checked with Cleveland
center, he told me he'd just lost a guy off the scope pretty
close to where we saw it. By then, we were able to patch in AM
radio, so we heard about all the planes. It was like a domino effect - a
really bad day for airplanes."
He finally landed at the Youngstown, Ohio, airport. "For awhile there,
almost every night, I found myself stone awake at 2 or 3 o'clock in the
morning. Took awhile to get over it." - Minnesota Star-Tribune
(09/11/02) [Reprint at:
Cooperative Research]

l

"Northern Virginia
resident John O’Keefe was one of the many commuters who witnessed the
attack on the Pentagon.
“The eeriest thing about it, was that it was like you were watching a
movie. There was no huge explosion, no huge rumbling on ground, it
just went ‘pfff.’ It wasn’t what I would have expected for a plane that
was not much more than a football field away from me.
“The first thing I did was pull over onto the shoulder, and when I got
out of the car I saw another plane flying over my head, and it
scared ...me, because I knew there had been two planes that hit the
World Trade Center. And I started jogging up the ramp to get as far away
as possible.
“Then the plane --
it looked like a C-130 cargo plane -- started turning away
from the Pentagon, it did a complete turnaround." - New York Law
Journal (09/12/01)

"U.S. fighter-jets
couldn't have had any involvement in the crash of a hijacked
airliner in Pennsylvania because the closest airborne jets at the
time were over the Washington area, more than 100 miles away,
a defense official said Friday.In fact, military commanders were never notified of the need to
intercept hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned
abruptly from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S.
military jets in the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr.,
director of the Air National Guard.
That means the U.S. fighter-jets in the air closest to the site at
Shanksville, Pa., in the southwestern part of the state actually were
over Washington, those sent up to defend the airspace over the nation's
capital, Weaver said.
The Pentagon has sought to knock down persistent rumors that the
Pennsylvania flight was shot down or intercepted by U.S.
fighter-jets and driven down.
The Pentagon's top spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said Thursday
that military officials had "triple-checked" and could state
categorically that the United States didn't shoot down the plane.
He couldn't say whether any U.S. military planes ever had the doomed
plane in sight.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the
sky nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble,
Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)

America Under Attack:
FBI and State Police Cordon Off Debris Area Six to Eight Miles
from Crater Where Plane Went Down
"DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we want to take our viewers live
to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our Brian Cabell is standing by.
This of course is the site where United Airlines flight 93 crashed
on its way from Newark to San Francisco, crashed on Tuesday, and I
understand, in this investigation, there's some breaking news. Brian,
what can you tell us? BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, in the last hour or
so, the FBI and the state police here have confirmed that have
they cordoned off a second area about six to eight miles away from
the crater here where plane went down. This is apparently
another debris site, which raises a number of questions. Why would
debris from the plane -- and they identified it specifically as being
from this plane --
why would debris be located 6 miles away. Could it have blown
that far away. It seems highly unlikely. Almost all the debris
found at this site is within 100 yards, 200 yards, so it raises some
question. We don't want to overspeculate of course. But there were
some cell phone callers, one cell phone caller in particular, who
said saw a bomb, or something that looked like a bomb with one of the
hijackers. Also, the man who took over the plane apparently
announced at one point, he had -- there was a bomb on board the plane.
Again, we don't want to speculate, we don't want to jump to conclusions.
But what we do know is that there's a site about half mile behind me,
where the plane went down, where most of the debris is, and then
about six miles away up by a lake, there is another area that's
been cordoned off, and state police and the FBI have said
definitely there is debris from the plane located there. We have a
crew on the way right now. We should have pictures of that a little bit
later on. KAGAN: Which was first question, so I'll move on to my next one,
Brian.
WE don't want to speculate about this large debris field. But it seems
to me from covering a number of plane crashes on the scene, that if
nothing else, this is not typical for a plane crash to be spread
across an area this large. CABELL: It's certainly doesn't make sense, because most of
the debris has been found in a very compact area, within 100 yards, 200
yards, maybe a little bit beyond that. Then all of a sudden they're
telling us six miles away, they have another concentration of
debris, very small pieces. Most peoples here no bigger than the size of
briefcase. The debris six miles away may be smaller. We have talked to a
number of individuals here. They say they have talked to people who
saw this plane during the final moments. They haven't confirmed
whether they saw -- whether they talked to anybody who saw this plane
actually land, or crash rather, and as to whether it broke up on the
way, we don't know that. The FBI being very tight-lipped about that.
But again, at It leads to that possibility. It certainly leads
to a number of questions. KAGAN: You mentioned they have yet to find the black box. It
would seems to me when you compare the four plane crashes of Tuesday,
this would be the site where they would be most likely to find a black
box. CABELL: That's what they told us initially, and I think they're
somewhat disappointed they haven't found it. It's been 48 hours, but
they are still hopeful they will find it. There is a pond nearby this
particular site. They may have to send divers into the pond. They
haven't done that yet, but conceivably, it could be in the pond, it
could be anywhere, it could be at this other debris side. They've also
found some other debris scattered around this area. They say in fact
some individuals have been collecting it. Again, we're talking about
very, very tiny parts. The biggest part they found at this site
is an engine, an engine part, and most of the other pieces are
probably no bigger than this particular notebook.
So again, very small pieces. They had hoped to find the black box by
now. They're still voicing optimism they will find it." -CNN (09/13/01)

"India Lake also
contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before the
Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the lake -
a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no mid-air
explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.
"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat
cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind."
But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away?
Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what
they reckon."
Light debris was also found eight miles away in New Baltimore. A
section of engine weighing a ton was located 2,000 yards - over a mile
-from the crash site. Theorists point out a Sidewinder heat-seeking
missile attacks the hottest part of aircraft - the engine.
The authorities say the impact bounced it there. But the few pieces of
surviving fuselage, local coroner Wallace Miller told us, were "no
bigger than a carrier bag". -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

l

"Bill Crowley, FBI, has
told reporters in Pittsburg, that debris from the hi-jacked plane
which crashed there has been
found six miles away." -TCM Breaking News (9/13/01)

/

"Finding any
substantial evidence from the plane will be difficult. Any remaining
debris is very small. WTAE-TV's Paul Van Osdol also reports that
some debris has been spotted up to two miles away from the crash
scene. Some has been washing up on shore at nearby Indian Lake."
-The Pittsburgh
Channel (9/12/01)

/

"Debris from the
crash has been found
up to 8 miles from the crash site, but searchers are
concentrating on the crater where most of the remains are located.
Papers and other light objects were carried aloft by the explosion after
impact of the plane and they were transported by a nine-knot wind."
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (9/16/01)

/

Mid-air Explosion

/

"A witness said
he heard two loud bangs before watching the plane take a
downward turn of nearly 90 degrees. A large crater, from which none
of the plane could be seen, was left in the ground."
Another witness, Michael Merringer, said he was out on a mountain bike
ride with his wife, Amy, about two miles from the crash site.
"(I) heard the engine gun two different times," he said. "(I)
heard a loud bang and the windows of the houses all around rattled."
FBI Agent Wells Morrison said that Westmoreland County 911 received a
call at 9:58 a.m. from a man who said he was on the plane. The FBI
had the tape but would not discuss its contents. The caller said he was locked in the plane's bathroom and that
the flight had been hijacked, according to Glenn Cramer of Westmoreland
County 911. A loud noise was then heard and the caller
reported seeing white smoke, Cramer said.
Connection with the man's cellular telephone was then lost. The crash
was reported soon after." -NewsNet5.com (9/11/01)

/

"According to The
Associated Press, the man told officials, "We are being hijacked, we are
being hijacked!"
Emergency dispatcher Glenn Cramer said the man on board reported
the plane "was going down. He heard some sort of explosion and
saw white smoke coming from the plane and we lost contact with
him."
An FBI official said the crash "appears" to be an act of terrorism, but
Pentagon officials firmly denied to ABCNEWS rumors that the
U.S. military shot down the aircraft to prevent it from being
crashed into Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, or
another government facility.
Adm. Craig Quigley told reporters the cause of the accident "was not
engagement by a U.S. fighter aircraft."
One eyewitness to the Pennsylvania crash, Linda Shepley, told television
station KDKA in Pittsburgh that she heard a loud bang and saw
the plane bank to the side before crashing." -ABC (9/11/01)

"India Lake also
contributes to the view there was an explosion on board before
the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on the
lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was
no mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the
ground." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

Rumored of Being Shot
Down

4:28:14 PM
"A Boeing 767 has crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It is not known if this air crash is related to the three other jets
used in today’s spate of terrorist attacks on the US.
The plane came down just north of the Somerset county airport,
about 80 miles south east of Pittsburgh. US anti-aircraft fighters are in place - unconfirmed reports
say
this plane was shot out of the sky by US defence.
It remains unclear whether this aircraft was the fourth to be hijacked
in Boston earlier today." -TCM Breaking News (9/11/01)

"Within minutes, there
was a report that a plane had crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania-what
turned out to be United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked
after leaving Newark International Airport. Many of those in the PEOC
feared that Cheney's order had brought down a civilian aircraft.
Rice demanded that someone check with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did
we shoot it down or did it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not
been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred
on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone
conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers
had fought with the hijackers." - Washington Post (1/27/02)

"Q:Ari,
can you rule out that therewas any decision to shoot
down the plane over Pennsylvania?
There are still continuing questionsthat the government may
have decided that that was necessary. Do you have any information
about that crash? MR. FLEISCHER: I don't have information about the cause of that
crash. Q: But can you rule out that it was shot down by the U.S.
military? MR. FLEISCHER: That would be the first I've heard of anything
like that. I have not heard anything like that at all." -White House/KnoxNews
(9/11/01)

"Q: Mr. Secretary,
there were rumors earlier in the day that the plane which
crashed in Pennsylvania had been brought down by the United States,
either shot down or in some other manner.
Rumsfeld: We have absolutely no information that any U.S.
aircraft shot down any other aircraft today." -DoD (9/11/01)

"He dismissed rumors
that a U.S. military jet had intercepted the plane before it
could strike a target in Washington, D.C. In testimony before the Senate
Armed Services Committee, President Bush's nominee for chairman
of the joint chiefs of staff rejected
rumors that the military had shot down the hijacked plane.
"The armed forces did not shoot down any aircraft," Air Force
Gen. Richard Myers said." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

/

"Responding
to persistent rumors that have circulated around the nation, the
North American Aerospace Defense Command disputed accounts yesterday
that U.S. military aircraft shot down United Airlines Flight 93 in
Somerset County.
"Contrary to media reports that speculate that United Airlines Flight 93
was 'downed' by a U.S. fighter aircraft, NORAD-allocated forces have not
engaged with weapons any aircraft, including Flight 93."It was the second such statement NORAD released on the incident
since the plane crashed Tuesday morning on a hilltop outside Shanksville.
"There was no military involvement here. I hope that ends that
speculation," FBI agent Bill Crowley told reporters yesterday during an
afternoon briefing at the crash site.Asked if there were any military aircraft flying in the vicinity of
Flight 93 or activated in response to the hijacking of the plane,
Capt. Adriane Craig, a NORAD spokeswoman, declined comment."
-Post-Gazette (9/14/01)

/

"As soon as he climbed
off his jet, Nasty was told by a crew member on the ground that another
airliner had smashed into the Pentagon. And he was told that a
military F-16 had shot down a fourth airliner in Pennsylvania, a
report that turned out to be incorrect." -Cape Cod Times (8/21/02)

/

"Mrs Mcelwain is
further convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone
call she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the
family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't
talk, but
we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they
meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do
something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it
down." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

8. 9:29 a.m.
Jeremy Glick calls his wife and describes the hijackers. He is told
about the attacks in New York.9. 9:34 a.m.
Cockpit intercom: In broken English, a man announces there is a bomb
and that the plane is returning to the airport.10. 9:35 a.m.
Hijacked plane is turned around near Cleveland.11. 9:41 a.m.
Marion Britton calls friend. She tells him that two people have been
killed and the plane has been turned around.12. 9:45 a.m.
Todd Beamer's cell phone call is transferred to Verizon operator
Lisa Jefferson. He tells her about the passengers' plan to fight the
hijackers.13. 9:49 a.m.
Pittsburgh International Airport flight tower is evacuated.14. 9:50 a.m.
Sandra Bradshaw calls her husband. She tells him that they are in
the rear galley filling pitchers with hot water to use against the
hijackers.

15. 9:58 a.m. •Todd Beamer's call ends as he and others begin to carry out
their plan to force their way into the cockpit and take over the
plane.•CeeCee Lyles has called her husband. Screams and jumbled noises
heard in the background. Call disconnects as confrontation with
hijackers begins.16. 10:04 a.m.
Johnstown-Cambria Country Airport reports the plane is 15 miles
south and coming fast.17. 10:05 a.m.
People on the ground witness the plane flying low and erratically.18. 10:06 a.m.
Flight 93 crashes near Shanksville, approximately 80 miles southeast
of Pittsburgh.19. 15-20 minutes away
Possible terrorist target: Washington D.C. approximately 124 miles,
or 15-20 minutes, from crash site.

"The
following timeline is for United Airlines flight 93, scheduled
to fly from Newark International Airport to San Francisco. The flight
crashed in Pennsylvania.
--8:42 a.m.: United Airlines flight 93 takes off from Newark
International Airport.
--9:16 a.m.: FAA informs NORAD that United Airlines flight 93 may
have been hijacked.
--9:40 a.m.: Transponder signal from United flight 93 ceases and
radar contact is lost.
--10:02 a.m.: After a review of radar tapes, a radar signal is
detected near Shanksville, Pennsylvania." - CNN (9/17/01)

"THE FINAL three
minutes of hijacked United Flight 93 are still a mystery more than a
year after it crashed in western Pennsylvania - even to grieving
relatives who sought comfort in listening to its cockpit tapes in April.
A Daily News investigation has found a roughly three-minute gap
between the time the tape goes silent - according to
government-prepared transcripts - and the time that top scientists
have pinpointed for the crash.Several leading seismologists agree that Flight 93 crashed last Sept.
11 at 10:06:05 a.m., give or take a couple of seconds. Family
members allowed to hear the cockpit voice recorder in Princeton,
N.J., last spring were told it stopped just after 10:03.The FBI and other agencies refused repeated requests to explain the
discrepancy.
Aviation experts said there could be several explanations for the gap.
...President Bush and other top government officials continue to invoke
the story - based largely on the cell-phone calls - of fighting between
the passengers and the hijackers as a "Let's roll" rallying cry
to continue the war against global terrorism.
But the FBI has clamped a tight lid of secrecy on the flight data
recorder - which could best show how Flight 93 actually crashed -
and on the cockpit voice recorder.
An FBI spokesman, Steven Berry, said the bureau continues to
officially list the time of the Flight 93 crash as 10:03 a.m. The
NTSB referred all questions to the FBI.
But the relatives of Flight 93 passengers who heard the cockpit tape
April 18 at a Princeton hotel said government officials laid out a
timetable for the crash in a briefing and in a transcript that
accompanied the recording. Relatives later reported they heard sounds of
an on-board struggle beginning at 9:58 a.m., but there was a final
"rushing sound" at 10:03, and the tape fell silent.
"There is no sound of the impact," said Kenneth Nacke, whose
brother, Lou Nacke Jr., is one of the passengers believed to have fought
with the hijackers. Nacke confirmed that the government said the tape
ended at 10:03 a.m.
"The seismic signals are consistent with impact at 10:06:05,"
plus or minus two seconds, said Terry Wallace, who heads the Southern
Arizona Seismic Observatory and is considered the leading expert on the
seismology of man-made events. "I don't know where the 10:03 time
comes from."
None of the family members interviewed for this story recalls any
explanation of a discrepancy between the times on the tape recording and
the actual crash at 10:06.
Investigators typically nail down the correct times very early in a
probe, experts said. Todd Curtis, who runs the Web site AirSafe.com,
said the three-minute gap "does not make sense."
But the three-minute gap is certain to fuel ongoing debates on the
Internet over how Flight 93 really crashed, and whether the plane
could have been shot down by military jet fighters that were sent aloft
as the Sept. 11 hijackings unfolded. The government insists there was no
shoot down.Numerous witnesses in the Shanksville area have told the Daily News
and other publications since last September that a mysterious,
low-flying unmarked white jet, military in nature, circled the area at
the time of the crash. The FBI has claimed this was a business
jet that had been asked by air-traffic controllers to inspect the
Flight 93 crater.
The debate has also been driven by the wide debris field from Flight
93 - including papers found eight miles away - and by conflicting
accounts over whether a 911 caller reported an explosion and white
smoke on board.
Grose, the former NTSB member, said he doubts the entire story of Flight
93 will ever be told.
"I don't think so," he said. "It's like David Crockett at the
Alamo. We need heroes." -Philadelphia Daily News (9/16/02)

"Questions of U.S.
military action have surrounded the crash of a hijacked airliner in
rural Pennsylvania. But although the government was authorized to
shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash came instead
as a result of a passenger uprising.
"We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz said.
"And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in
Pennsylvania. I think it was the
heroism of the passengers on boardthat brought it down,
but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had had to." - PBS
(9/16/01)

"One of the
hijackers in the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 ordered the
terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah to crash the plane into a field in
Pennsylvania because of a passenger uprising in the cabin, U.S.
investigators now believe.
Thirty-three passengers, seven crew members and the four hijackers died
in the horrific, heroic crash.
The new theory, based on the government's analysis of cockpit
recordings, discounts the popular perception of insurgent passengers
grappling with terrorists to seize the plane's controls.
The government's findings -- laid out deep within the report on the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that was sent to Congress last month -- aim to
resolve one of the enduring mysteries of the deadliest terror attacks in
U.S. history: What happened in the final minutes aboard Flight 93?"
- Fox (8/08/03)

Relatives of some of
those who died on United Airlines Flight 93 during the Sept. 11 attacks
say their family members are still heroes, even if an FBI report that
claims the terrorist hijackers deliberately crashed the jetliner into a
Pennsylvania field before passengers could seize control is true.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has been widely accepted that the passengers
on the plane, having learned of the other terror attacks on the
World Trade Center that morning, stormed the cockpit of the plane,
where hijackers had taken the controls, and in overpowering the
terrorists, crashed the airliner themselves into a Pennsylvania
field.
However, the analysis of what happened on Flight 93 contained in
a report sent to Congress last month tells a slightly different story.
Based on analysis of recordings from the cockpit, investigators
concluded that while the passengers managed to get into the cockpit,
they never took control of the plane from the hijackers.
Instead, investigators believe that a hijacker in the cockpit ordered
Ziad Jarrah, the only one of the terrorists on the plane with a
pilot's license, to crash the jetliner.
Hoglan said she does not believe the FBI's analysis of what happened on
Flight 93 is accurate. The voice recording of the flight's final minutes
tells her there was a passenger struggle before the crash, she said.
"It was the last five to seven minutes of the cockpit voice recording
that would convince any rational person that yes, indeed, the passengers
did make it into the cockpit," she said. "And yes, indeed, a struggle
ensued for the controls."
Jerry and Beatrice Guadagno, whose son Richard died on the flight,
find the suggestion that the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane
unbelievable.
"It sort of implies the aircraft was deliberately crashed, which makes
no sense to me," Jerry Guadagno said. "I have never been told or had any
reason to believe that the aircraft wasn't taken over by the passengers
and as a result of the conflict, control of the aircraft was lost either
by the terrorists, or the passengers. … I am quite surprised and amazed
by this new interpretation."
"I doubt that any of our loved ones would have deliberately downed
the plane," she said. "What I think happened is that there was a
struggle at the controls and because the plane was flying so low, and so
fast, any little tweak on the controls could put it into the ground and
that is indeed what happened." -ABC (8/08/03)

"Passengers aboard
United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers
but never actually made it into the cockpit, the Sept. 11
commission concluded.
The assertion, included in the panel's dramatic summary of the harrowing
flight, contradicts the firmly held belief by some victims'
families that passengers breached the cockpit and fought with
hijackers inside during their final moments.
Relying on the cockpit recorder and flight data, the commission said
terrorist-pilot Ziad Jarrah violently rocked the jet's wings and
told another hijacker to block the door. With the sounds of fighting
outside the cockpit, Jarrah asked, "Is that it? Shall we finish it
off?"
Another hijacker, who wasn't identified, replied, "No, not yet. When
they all come, we finish it off."Jarrah then began pitching the nose of the plane up and down to
throw passengers off balance.
Seconds later, a passenger who wasn't identified yelled, "In the
cockpit! If we don't, we die!" And 16 seconds afterward, another
passenger yelled, "Roll it!" Investigators previously have said they
believe passengers tried to use a food cart to break the cockpit door.
Jarrah said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!", and he
asked his fellow hijacker, "Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?"
The other hijacker answered, "Yes, put it in, and pull it down."Roughly 90 seconds later, the jet rolled onto its back and
crashed into a Pennsylvania field at more than 580 mph, killing
everyone aboard.
The commission concluded that the hijackers remained at the controls of
the plane, "but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds
from overcoming them."
The Associated Press reported last year that the government's theory
about Flight 93 described by FBI Director Robert Mueller to
congressional investigators in closed testimony also concluded that
passengers grappled with terrorists but never actually got into the
cockpit." -ABC (07/22/04)

Witnesses

Saw a second plane in the vicinity:

Jim Brandt - Somerset County resident Jim Brandt said that he
saw another plane in the area. He said it stayed there for one or
two minutes before leaving. -The Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

Dale Browning - "It's the damndest darn thing," said Dale
Browning, a farmer.
"Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no one can tell us
what it is." -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Rick Chaney - Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet
type, with engines mounted near the tail and painted white
with no identifying markings. -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Susan Custer - said she saw a small white jet streaking
overhead. -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Dennis Decker - "As soon as we looked up, we saw a midsized
jet flying low and fast," Decker said. "It appeared to make a loop
or part of a circle, and then it turned fast and headed out." Decker
and Chaney described the plane as a Lear-jet type, with engines
mounted near the tail and painted white with no identifying markings.
-The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Robin Doppstadt - was working inside her family food-and-supply
store when she heard the crash. When she went outside, she said, she
saw a small white jet that looked like it was making a single circle
over the crash site.
"Then it climbed very quickly and took off. " -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Susan Mcelwain, 51 - who lives two miles from the site, knows
what she saw - the white plane rocketed directly over her head.
"It came right over me, I reckon just 40 or 50ft above my mini-van," she
recalled. "It was so low I ducked instinctively. It was traveling real
fast, but hardly made any sound.
"Then it disappeared behind some trees. A few seconds later I heard this
great explosion and saw this fireball rise up over the trees, so I
figured the jet had crashed. The ground really shook. So I dialed 911
and told them what happened.
"I'd heard nothing about the other attacks and it was only when I got
home and saw the TV that I realized it wasn't the white jet, but Flight
93.
I didn't think much more about it until the authorities started to say
there had been no other plane. The plane I saw was heading right to
the point where Flight 93 crashed and must have been there at the
very moment it came down.
"There's no way I imagined this plane - it was so low it was virtually
on top of me. It was white with no markings but it was definitely
military, it just had that look.
"It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on
the back of a car and with two upright fins at the side. I
haven't found one like it on the internet. It definitely wasn't one
of those executive jets. The FBI came and talked to me and said
there was no plane around.
"Then they changed their story and tried to say it was a plane taking
pictures of the crash 3,000ft up.
"But I saw it and it was there before the crash and it was 40ft above my
head. They did not want my story - nobody here did."
Mrs Mcelwain, who looks after special needs children, is further
convinced the whole truth has yet to come out because of a phone call
she had within hours from the wife of an air force friend of the family.
"She said her husband had called her that morning and said 'I can't
talk, but we've just shot a plane down,' " Susan said. "I presumed they
meant Flight 93. I have no doubt those brave people on board tried to do
something, but I don't believe what happened on the plane brought it
down.
"If they shot it down, or something else happened, everyone, especially
the victims' families, have a right to know." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

More - Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek Township said a small white
jet with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over
her minivan near an intersection and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly
clipping the tops of trees lining the ridge.
It was less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, that the ground shook
and a white plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. "It was so close to
me I ducked," Mcelwain said. "I heard it hit and saw the smoke. All I
could think of was how close I came to dying. " -The Bergen Record (9/14/01)

Lee Purbaugh, 32 - was the only person to see the last seconds
of Flight 93 as it came down on former strip-mining land at precisely
10.06am - and he also saw the white jet.
He was working at the Rollock Inc. scrap yard on a ridge overlooking the
point of impact, less than half a mile away. "I heard this real loud
noise coming over my head," he told the Daily Mirror. "I looked up and
it was Flight 93, barely 50ft above me. It was coming down in a 45
degree and rocking from side to side. Then the nose suddenly dipped and
it just crashed into the ground. There was this big fireball and then a
huge cloud of smoke."
But did he see another plane? "Yes, there was another plane," Lee
said. "I didn't get a good look but it was white and it circled
the area about twice and then it flew off over the horizon." -Daily
Mirror (9/13/02)

Tom Spinelli, 28 - was working at India Lake Marina, a mile and
a half away. "I saw the white plane," he said.
"It was flying around all over the place like it was looking for
something. I saw it before and after the crash."
India Lake also contributes to the view there was an explosion on board
before the Newark-San Francisco flight came down. Debris rained down on
the lake - a curious feat if, as the US government insists, there was no
mid-air explosion and the plane was intact until it hit the ground.
"It was mainly mail, bits of in-flight magazine and scraps of seat
cloth," Tom said. "The authorities say it was blown here by the wind."
But there was only a 10mph breeze and you were a mile and a half away?
Tom raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes and said: "Yeah, that's what
they reckon." -Daily Mirror (9/13/02)

More - Another Somerset County resident, Tom Spinello, said that
he saw the plane. He said that it had high back wings. -The
Pittsburgh Channel (9/12/01)

Reported alive
- "Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily,
says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi. He was listed by the
FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the
identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt." -BBC
(9/23/01)

"FBI Chief Raises
New Doubts Over Hijackers' Identities
*
Saeed Alghamdi, a name used by one of the alleged hijackers on
United Airlines Flight 93, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
A Saudi Arabian pilot, currently on a mission to Tunisia, has the same
name." -LA Times (9/21/01)

"It's impossible for us
to believe [the United States] anymore," said Taha Alghamdi, a
salesman in Jeddah whose brother Saeedwas
mistakenly confused with another man by the same name who
hijacked United Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
"What sort of intelligence agency doesn't know that there are thousands
of Saeed Alghamdis in Saudi Arabia?" Alghamdi said. "It is like accusing
Tom from New York."
Like others, Alghamdi said his family would be pursuing legal action
against the U.S. government for defamation." -Chicago Tribune (10/04/01)

Reported alive
- "FBI Chief Raises New Doubts Over Hijackers' Identities
*
Ahmed Alnami, a name used by another suspected hijacker on
Flight 93.
A 33-year-old Saudi Arabian pilot with the same name is alive in
Riyadh." -LA Times (9/21/01)

Jarrah
stopped by CIA in January 2001 in United Arab Emirates, stopped by
Maryland police Sept. 9th for speeding, and a fragment of his passport
was supposedly found at Shanksville crash site!

"One of the September
11 hijackers was stopped and questioned in the United Arab Emirates in
January 2001 at the request of the CIA, nearly nine months before the
attacks, sources in the government of the UAE, and other Middle Eastern
and European sources told CNN.
The CIA suspected Ziad Jarrah had been in Afghanistan and wanted
him questioned because of "his suspected involvement in terrorist
activities," UAE sources said.
The FBI believes Jarrah, a Lebanese national, was at the
controls of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in rural
Pennsylvania shortly after 10 a.m. on September 11. U.S. officials
believe the plane's target was the White House.
A CIA spokesman vigorously denied that the CIA knew anything
about Jarrah before September 11 or had anything do with his
questioning in Dubai.
U.S. and UAE officials say Jarrah was stopped at the airport in Dubai on
January 30, 2001, after the CIA notified UAE officials that he would be
arriving from Pakistan on his way back to Europe. UAE sources say the
CIA wanted to know where he had been in Afghanistan and how long he had
been there.
Told of the CIA's denial, UAE government officials repeated to CNN
that Jarrah was questioned at the request of the United States.
Senior UAE sources said they had no reason to question him for their own
purposes because he was in transit. Jarrah was questioned after he had already spent six months in
the United States learning to fly. He had a valid U.S.
multiple-entry visa in
his passport, a fragment of which was found at the Flight 93 crash site.
Investigators have confirmed that Jarrah had spent at
least three weeks in January 2001 at an al Qaeda training camp
in Afghanistan. He was released because U.S. officials were satisfied, according
to sources. The CIA spokesman repeated the agency's denial that there
was any such contact.
After his release, Jarrah boarded a KLM flight in the early hours of
January 31 and flew to Europe. Between then and September, Jarrah
traveled to the United States, Lebanon and Germany before returning to
the United States. There is no sign that he ever again drew the
interest of any intelligence agency. On September 9, two days before the hijackings, a Maryland
state trooper cited Jarrah for speeding on Interstate 95 in Cecil
County, near the Delaware state line. Registration showed that the red
2001 Mitsubishi Galant that Jarrah drove that night was owned by Garden
State Car Rental at Newark International Airport in New Jersey. After
the September 11 hijackings, the car was found at the airport
with the speeding citation was still in the glove box.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has said local law enforcement officials
should have been told by the FBI that Jarrah was on a CIA watch list.
The FBI disputes his criticism, which came during O'Malley's testimony
at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last fall.
A month after the hijackings, U.S. authorities also discovered a letter
written by Jarrah to his girlfriend in Germany and postmarked September
10. In the letter -- which was mistakenly addressed and returned to the
United States, where authorities found it -- Jarrah told his girlfriend
he had done his duty.
"I have done what I had to do," he wrote. "You should be very proud. It
is an honor, and you will see the result, and everyone will be happy."
-CNN (08/01/02)

"Mr Glick is said to
have explained to his wife that the plane had been taken over by
three men of Middle Eastern appearance wearing red headbands."
The microphone went off again, then on, and a voice in broken English -
an Arabic accent, according to a source who heard the tape - said:
"There is a bomb on board. This is the captain speaking. Remain in your
seat. There is a bomb on board. Stay quiet. We are meeting with their
demands. We are returning to the airport."
The hijacked United Airlines flight was the only plane to crash
without causing damage to structures on the ground." -BBC (9/13/01)

"While visiting the
crash site Thursday, FBI Director Robert Mueller said translators were
helping to work on a transcript of the tape -- confirming that more than
one language is heard on the tape.
Officials say there are shouts heard in Arabic and English."
-CNN (9/22/01)